Sunday Supplement: Clapham Common

by delacybrown on September 16, 2012

Autumn is coming. It’s inescapable. When we are lucky enough to enjoy the sun, we notice that its heat is no longer so all embracing, and that a chilly breeze is never far behind. All around, the lush green of verdant England is turning slowly paler, then yellow, and then auburn, as the trees slowly relent to the weather forces around them, tired after a summer’s efforts to grow and sustain thousands of new leaves, now letting them drop to the floor as the tree retreats into its winter slumber.

Autumn is a time of death and decay, but also a time of great beauty, as summer fades away, and the canvas of colours all around changes perceptively from blues and greens, to deep oranges, umbers and reds. I love autumn, and no more so in the large parks for which London is so famed. Just around the corner on Clapham Common, the trees scatter such a bounty of leaves all about them that often a carpet of golden curls is all that can be seen for miles around. This is all the more enhanced when the long rays of the autumn sun cast long shadows upon them, allowing the shades of orange and red to dance around the park like wild fire.

It was on one such sunny afternoon that I was inspired to paint this scene – a vivid painting capturing light and shadow across fallen leaves in Clapham Common. Now I come to think of it, it’s a bit Hockney in its bold colours, although this wasn’t the intention. Rather I set about demonstrating how vivid and eye-catching are the hues of autumn, and how beautiful this time of fading summer can be.

I loved your painting of Clapham Common. We don’t really get a proper autumn here in Israel. One minute it’s summer, then suddenly, it’s winter. But I do remember autumn in London, especially in Regent’s Park, which was more or less our “back yard”, and the horse chestnut avenue (now sadly lost to Dutch Elm Disease) – and gathering conkers 🙂